In my coaching sessions with leaders, I often return to the idea that leaders are responsible for managing state transitions. Some of these transitions might be personal such as trying to break free of a chaotic schedule full of emergencies and reactive behaviour, to a schedule with enough thinking time to plan ahead and take more intentional actions. Other transitions might be team-related, such as inheriting a distrusting, low-performing team and working with the team to turn it into a high trust, high-performing one. Others yet might be structural, such as making an implicit process explicit or streamlining an existing process.

It’s essential that leaders are aware of their current state and decide if they have an opportunity to improve it with a state transition. Unfortunately too many leaders I know see their role as enforcing the current state (i.e. rules, processes, and structures) instead of working to improve the system for all.

Your challenge for this week is to be more deliberate about observing your current state. Do you see opportunities to improve it? What can you do today to take one step towards an improved state?

Enjoy this week’s newsletter and be sure to pass it on to a friend or colleague. Want to level up your technical leadership skills? Sign up for the online workshop, “Shortcut to Tech Leadership” or take a self-paced course at the http://techlead.academy.